There are dissertations and admissions from WotC for 3rd, 4th and Pathfinder on required equipment to match the CR progression of enemies. Once you get to higher levels in any of those you're functionally required to maintain the highest numerical level of a cloak of resistance, weapon, amulet of natural armour, armour/bracers, ring of deflection, belt of physical attribute(s), headband of mental attribute (wisdom) and shield (build dependent, of course) that you can afford or you fall behind the curve. The only way an heirloom sword, or whatever, can exist past level 3-4 is if your GM lets you continually re-enchant it.

This has been a complaint basically since it came out that anything else, AKA getting to play with the cool stuff, sets you behind the curve. Pathfinder's automatic progression and a lot of 5th was built to get away from this.

That was actually an optional rule in the 4th Edition DM's Guide: characters could be assigned inherit bonuses to attack/damage/defenses at certain levels, and you could them eliminate the corresponding equipments' bonuses and just use them for the properties/activated powers.

"Herilooing" was also an optional rule on 3.5 DM's Guide, I believe. Instead of getting the corresponding GP amount, you could get your items "improved" or "energized" as rewards. It wasn't very technically described, but the base math for it was there (and I believe it was even expanded on Magic Item Compendium).

That's really the gist of it. Big damn heroes in fiction aren't big damn heroes because of the swag, but because they are awesome. D&D even has literal ablative plot armor in the form of HP, but the various editions - the latter moreso than the former - have always forced you to tape some bling on your body to keep up (which also leads to people ignoring possibly interesting magic items because their slot competes with "Necessary to keep up with your level"-stuff).

Is Guts super awesome because is sword deals 12d6 damage? No, he's awesome because he's a badass who has wielded way too big swords for most of his life. Most of the damage should come from him.

What stores stock what and shopkeepers only showing the good stuff to big spenders thing has always been a thing back through until at least 3rd as a GM recommendation at least. Just no one I know's ever really bothered with it. The same conceit in reverse is what prevents a wandering Ancient Red from deciding your village looks tasty within the first five minutes of play.

There is a subtle difference between shopkeepers going "Ya got a loicense for that mate?" and the GM deciding to go "Dragon falls, everyone dies".

Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.

/tg/ is one of the last - mostly - untarnished realms of geekdom left, for it has never been particularly profitable in the first place (less reason for SJWs to waltz in and fuck everything up), and even groups from the same franchise are splintered as fuck.

of course, you get the ocasional brainfart like "Beast: The Primordial" (which I think might've been supposed to be "SJWs vs Evil Nazi MRAs", but somebody fucked up big time and portrayed the not-SJWs as irredeemable monsters fucking people up with flimsy justifications) or Ponyfinder (because what better system to use for your pony RPG than one not designed for characters without hands?), but that's more of a weird niche thing to be mocked instead of a cancer swallowing the industry.

Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.

Damn, are you completely out of the loop? WotC is full on on the social justice ride and Pathfinder has actual tranny shit going on. The absolute state of /tg/ is just a little bit better than /co/ and that's about it.

But WotC also reverted D&D back to its older self (aka appeasing the old fans because they know that's the largest consumer chunk they're ever going to get, SocJus be damned), and who knows how well Pathfinder will surive its system's planned 2nd edition.
And even this Current Year d20 stuff is but a fraction of the playerbase.

What I'm saying is I have yet to see a situation where a company gets so corrupted by the SJW that it started to near-FUBAR the product and hurt their finances in a big way. Tabletop companies don't quite have the financial cushion and/or more lucrative alternative money sources as DC and Marvel.

Autism attracts more autism. Sooner or later, an internet nobody will attract the exact kind of fans - and detractors - he deserves.